Active carbon product and process for preparing same



moving the ash content by washing with acid. Carrying the line reasoning indicated Patented Aug. 26,, 1930 NT OFFICE HANS VON HALBAN AND OSKAR SCHOBEB, OF FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, GERMANY THE-MAIN, GERMANY ASSIGNORS TO METALLGESELLSGHAFT AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, OF FRANKFURT-ON- Acnva cannon rnonucr Ann raocn ss roa PREPARING sum 1T0 Drawing. Application filed June 1, 1927, Serial No. 195,860, and in Germany June 12, 1828.

Heretofore it has been the generally accepted belief of those versed. in the active carbon art that active carbon products are characterized by high carbon content, and further, that the purity of the products, with respect to carbon, is directly proportional to their activity. Prior methods of making active carbon products have pointed to or borne out this belief. For instance, it has been customary either to select for the preparation of active carbon products starting materials, such as wood charcoal, cocoanut shell carbon and the like, which are low in mineralor ash-forming constituents, or to treat the activated material for the removal of ash, for instance, by washing with acid, or

both. The preparation of active carbon products therefore has been rather troublesome and expensive, and due to the loss of carbon by oxidation during the activating process and the removal of ash by washing,

the yields of active carbon products have been relatively low.

, discovery that high carbon or conversely low acid-soluble ash content is not essential to high activity. We have found that a product of high activity or adsorptive capacity may contain more than 20%, for instance, 30% to40%, and even up to ashigh as 80% or even 90% of acid-soluble ash derived from mineral or ash-forming constituents of the starting material and moreover that the activity of a product having such a high acid-soluble ash content derived from the starting material is greater than the activity of the product obtainable therefrom by reby these discoveries to its logical conclusion, it has been demonstrated by carrying the activating operation ,to the point at which only'ash is left, that the activity of the products is not inherent in the ash. The ash, y

ing the activity of the carbon and by remov-- ing all of the carbon and measuring the activity of the residual ash. These discoveries open the way to the economical preparation of active carbon products directly and without treatment for, the removal .of ash from inexpensive starting materials, such as coal, brown coal, crude coke, peat, etc, and mixtures thereof which are rich in acid-soluble- 1 i It will 'be under- I ash-forming constituents. stood that the present invention is distinguished from the preparation of mixtures of active carbon and other materials, such as silica or silicates, which may or may not have adsorptive properties but are not acidsolilible ash derived from the starting materia invention may be clearly defined and distinguished from prior products the following facts are given: Our products, having an activity characteristic of active carbon products to be defined hereinafter do not, as has heretofore been regarded as essential, necessarily contain upwards of 90% of carbon or more accurately less than 10% of acid-solu-' ble ash.' Our products in general contain from 20% upward to 90% of acid soluble ash. The presence of ash. which is-not soluble in acid along with the acid-soluble ash is not excluded. Our products have an apparent density of less than 0.6, that is, one liter of the product, pulverized so that the average grain measures about 0.1 millimeter In order that the products of the present I compacted by shaking weighs at most about 600 grams.

Active carbon as distinguished from ordinary decolorizing carbons, such as bone black, may be definedin several ways, for instance, by reference to its decolorizing action as compared with that of bone black, and by its absolute decolorizing power with respect to standard molasses solution. These methods may be employed not only for distinguishing what is known as active carbon from otherforms of carbon but for determining the relative activity thereof.

For determining the activity of a carbon in dec-olorizing a standard molasses solution the method consists in preparing a normal or standard molasses solution by diluting a measured quantity of commercial molasses from the beet sugar rocess with water until a coloring of tammer' (cf. Friihling- Rossing, Untersuchung der Rohstofle der Zuckerindustrie (1919), p. 164) isv obtained.

J to 1.5

To obtain this degree of coloration from common commercial molasses it is usually necessary to dilute about grams of the molasses to 1 liter. Since commercial molasses usually contains about 74.5% of dry solids and has a specific gravity of about 1.38, a solution having a colorationof 20 Stam mer, i. e., 5.5 ams of commercial molasses diluted to 1 llter of solution, contains about 4% of dry solids. Small variations in the composition of the molasses solution having a coloration of 20 Stammer do not material- 17 afi'ect the results in the use of the solution or testing the activity of a decolorizing carbon product. The diluted molasses solution is then shaken with 1 am of kieselguhr per liter of solution and filtered and is then ready for use. The so prepared molasses solution should be used within 3 or 4 hours and preferably is used directly after it is repared and before any alteration occurs. 1 :1 testin a decolorizin carbon product a measure quantity of t e product isagitated with a measured quantity. of the molasses solution held'at a temperature of 80C. for about 10 minutes and then filtered and the solution examined with a colorimeter, for instance a Dubo colorimeter, to determine the de ree ofdeeo orization. Theactivity of the car n is measured by the quantity required to produoe a decolorization in 100 cubic centimeters of the standard molasses solution. The quantities of commercial active carbon products of high carbon content required to produce a 60% deceleration range from 0.2 ms. The average high grade and expensive deeolorizing carbons run in the neighborhood of 0.75 grams. Active carbon products therefore may be defined with reference to the foregoing test as products of which at most 1.0 is. required to produce a 60% decolon'zation. of 100 cubic oentimeters of a standard molasses solution. By reference to' bone black, active carbon roducts may be defined as being products avmgJ at least twice the decolorizing activ- 1ty of one black, that is, not more than half as much of the active carbon product as of bone black is required to produce a given decolorization providedthat before testing the bone black is ground to the same degree of fineness as the active carbon product. Our products usually are at least; five times or from five to eight times as active as decolorizing agents, as bone black when tested by the standard molasses solution'method described above.

It is noted at this point that heretofore no active carbon product containing as hi h as 20% of acid-soluble ash and having a ecolorizing power as measured by the standard molasses solution test within the range from I 0.2 to 1.5 hasbeen known.

The active carbon products of our lnvention may be prepared in various ways involying numerous modifications of the well -known oxidation activation process. For

'ricacid. As the oxidizing gas there may be used oxygen or oxygen-containing gases such as air or gases containing oxygen in chemical combination or capable of liberating oxygen such as carbon dioxide, steam, chlorine or the like. Mixtures of such oxidizin gases with each other and/or with inert di utin gases such as nitro en may be employed. e temperature to e employed in the activating process depends upon the nature of the oxidizing gas or mixture used. For instance, when using steam (water vapor) alone temperatures of 950 C. to 1100 C. are required, whereas when using a gas containing elemental oxygen, such as a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and steam, lower temperatures, such as 500 C. to 800 C. are suflicient. For example, one may treat the carbonaceous material in a suitable apparatus such as a rotary furnace at about 600 C. to 700 C. with a mixture of equal parts of air and steam until the loss in weight calculated upon the weight of the dry starting material is more than 40%,

for example 50% to. In many instances the best results are obtained by carrying on the activation until the loss of weight is from 70% to 80%. In general it has been found to be most advantageous to use an oxidizing gas mixture, the partial pressure of the oxygen content of which is from 8 m. m. to 115 m. m. of mercury,-or in which the oxygen amounts to from 1% to 15% of the volume of the mixture at atmos heric pressure. The mixture of equal parts 0? air and steam, referred to above, contains 10% by volume of oxygen. The oxygen content of the gas mixture should in general not exceed 15%. In

Ill

general the lower the pressure under which the activation is carried out the higher may be the oxygen content of the oxidizing gas mixture and the oxygen content of the gas also.i s correlated with the temperature at which the activation is carried out, following therule that the higher the temperature the lower shouldbe the oxygen content of the gas. For example, in activating brown coal at a temperature of about 700 C. the gas mixture should contain from 2% to 6% by volture must be lowered accordingly. Or, as is indicated above, the oxygen partial pressure in the gas mixture can be lowered by lowering the pressure under which the oxidizing gas mixture is applied in the activating operation. The best conditions of operation including the temperature, the composition of the oxidizing gas, the rate of gas flow and the extent to which the oxygen content of the carbonaceous material is consumed are best determined by experimentation upon smallbatches of material. In some cases it is advantageous to increase the. temperature at which the activation is carried out near the end of the activating operation, for instance,

when the activation is carried out at a temrature of 650 C., it'is advantageous to mcrease the temperature during the last 15 minutes to about 1000 0. Another advantageous expedient is to decrease the oxygen and the products of combustion serve as the oxidizin or activating gas and the heat nerated by the combustion serves to pro uce the desired activating temperature.

Our process has the advantages that it is simple and inexpensive to carryout on a large scale; that it employs inexpensive starting materials and avoids the expensive washing with acid to remove ash; and that it is carried out at relatively low temperatures and therefore is not destructive to the apparatus used. Our process usually involves the use of temperatures well below 1000" 0., whereas previous activating processes usually involve the use of temperatures approximating or even exceeding 1000 C. The active carbon products made in accordance ,withour invention are inexpensive, are characterized by a high acid-soluble ash content coupled with an activity comparable with that of high grade active carbon products of relatively low acid-soluble ash content, and are suitable for use for decolorizing, the adsorption of gases and vapors, the separation of gas mix 7 tures, and for catalytic purposes and other content of the oxidizing gas mixture near' the end of the activating operation until the carbonaceous material is finally heated for a short time in a gas free of elementaloxygen, for instance, steam alone. The starting material may be previously coked' or charred in a separate operation or the coking as of peat and the activation may be accom lished in a single continuous operation in t e same reaction vessel. I 1

Instead of using as the oxidizing gas especially prepared mixtures of air, steam, etc., one may use waste gas products of. combustion from heatin' furnaces, provided that they are free 0 deleterious impurities. Or the oxidizing may be produced outside of or even wit u the vowel within which the-activation is carried out by the combustion of fuel For instance, one may supply a suitable mixture of producer rotary furnace, where the mixture is burned consistm essentially of nitrogen and car n monoxi c with air and steam to the activating for instance, a

mixtures, such as uses where activated carbon may be applied.

We claim: 1. An active carbon product containing from about 20 to about 90% of ash derived from the carbonaceous starting material,

is soluble in dilute hydrochloric which ash acid.

.2. An active carbon product containing at least about 20% of ash derived from the carbonaceous starting material. which ash is soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, and at least about 10% of carbon.

3. Process for the production of an active carbon product which comprises subjecting a corbonaceous material to the action' of an oxidizing gas at a temperature of .at least about 500 C. until the material loses at least 40% bywei'ght.

4. Process for the production of an active carbon product which comprises treating a corbonaceous material with an oxidizing gas having an elemental oxygen partial pressure of from 8 m. m. to m. m. of mercury at 500 C. to 800 until at least 40% by weightof said material is consumed.

In testimony whereof, we afiix our signatures.

HANS VON HALBAN. OSKAR SCHOBER. 

